Patristic A.D. 407
“(Hom. in Matt. 11.) But John’s desire when he spoke to the Publicans and soldiers, was to bring them over to a higher wisdom, for which as they were not fitted, he reveals to them commoner truths, lest if he put forward the higher they should pay no attention thereto, and be deprived of the others also.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Luke, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 3:10-14
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1843) ↗